Teen charged in N.Y. anti-Latino hate crime found guilty

Jeffrey Conroy, in foreground, and other teens charged in the beating death of an Ecuadorean immigrant in Long Island in 2008.

The racially motivated attack and subsequent death of an Ecuadorean immigrant in November 2008 got national headlines. In part, that was because it was a hate crime, an anti-Latino, anti-immigrant hate crime in a place where such hate was being tolerated by police and other authories, prompting a federal investigation. The murder also got a lot of attention because it was so brutal and committed by a group of Long Island teenagers out to beat up Latinos on a Saturday night.

The teens called it “Mexican hopping” or “beaner hopping.”

Altogether, seven teens were involved. As the crime took place, they called the victim and his friend “Mexicans” and “illegals.” The teens yelled out racial and ethnic slurs against African Americans and Latinos.

Marcelo Lucero tried to get away after his attack. He left a trail of blood for 370 feet, the New York Times reported. He had worked at a dry cleaners. His family was thousands of miles away in Ecuador.

Today, one of his killers, Jeffrey Conroy, was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime. It wasn’t the toughest of more than 20 charges he faced. He was acquited of murder but was found guilty of assaults on three other Latinos.

The Times story about Conroy’s conviction said “Lucero’s death had become a symbol of the anti-Hispanic harassment and assaults that Latinos on eastern Long Island said they had been victims of for years, and it helped prompt an ongoing federal investigation into the Suffolk County Police Department’s handling of reports of racially motivated attacks against Hispanics.”

Conroy, 19, could have faced life in prison. Instead, he faces eight to 25 years. He’ll be sentenced May 26.

Like two other teens involved, Conroy pleaded not guilty. Four of the other teens are cooperating with authorties and have pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime as well as other charges.

Family members, some all the way from Ecuador, were present for the trial. His brother Joselo Lucero said, “Hunting season is over,” referring to the hunting of Latinos.